Biden and Trump Debate as Democracies Die

[Oscar]

Biden and Trump Debate as Democracies Die

[ https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2024/07/03/ ... ign=080724 ]

The presidential spectacle highlighted a global political collapse.

Andrew Nikiforuk - July 3, 2024 - The Tyee

Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more.

The debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden showed a broken democracy. Image via Shutterstock.

“When a country is in the grip of a collective passion, it becomes unanimous in crime. If it becomes prey to two, or four, or five, or 10 collective passions, it is divided among several criminal gangs. Divergent passions do not neutralize one another... they clash with infernal noise, and amid such din the fragile voices of justice and truth are drowned.” — Simone Weil

Anyone who listened to the so-called U.S. presidential debate (it was neither presidential nor a debate) experienced something worse than heartburn.

Against my better instincts, I listened for 10 minutes. As a Canadian raised and educated in the United States, my heart sank into the ground. I have not yet retrieved it.

The silly debate, orchestrated by an equally absurd institution, CNN, distilled the declining state of democracies into one fantastic cartoon. . . . .

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